102 THE FIRE-FLARE, OR STING RAT. 



whale, no other rapacious fish has a throat sufficiently capacious 

 to swallow them ; and their prickly spines render them a still 

 more dangerous morsel The size of some of them is indeed so 

 large, that even the shark is not able to devour them. Those 

 caught on the British coasts have sometimes been found to weigh 

 two hundred pounds, which is nothing in comparison of their 

 enormous bulk in some other seas. Labat tells us of a ray that 

 was taken by the negroes at Guadaloupe, which was thirteen feet 

 eight inches broad, and ten feet from the snout to the insertion 

 of the tail ; and the tail itself fifteen feet long. The body was 

 two feet in depth, and the skin as thick as leather, and marked 

 with spots, which, in all this kind, appear to be no other than 

 glands, supplying a mucus to lubricate and moisten the skin. 

 This enormous fish was totally unfit to be eaten by Europeans, 

 but the poor negroes were glad to cut up and salt some of its 

 best parts. 



It is chiefly during the winter season that our fishermen take 

 the ray ; but the Dutch, who are indefatigable, begin earlier, 

 and fish with greater success. The value of their capture gene- 

 rally rewards them well for their assiduity, as the thorn-back and 

 the skait are very good food, and weigh from eight or ten, to 

 two hundred pounds ; but sometimes their lines are visited by the 

 rough ray, the fire-flare, or the torpedo, which are very unwel- 

 come intruders. 



The rough ray inflicts only slight wounds with the prickles 

 that cover its whole body, of which there is not a single part that 

 is not armed with spines. Of these the puncture cannot be other- 

 wise avoided than by seizing the fish by the little fin at the ex- 

 tremity of the tail. 



THE FIRE-FLARE, OR STING RAY, 



Is a very singular species, and seems to be the terror of every 

 fisherman. It is armed with a barbed dart, or sting, about five 

 inches long, which is fixed in the tail. Concerning the formi- 

 dable powers of this instrument, a number of fables have been 

 invented and handed down from ancient to modern times. It is 

 certain that the fish is capable of inflicting, with this weapon, a 

 deep and dangerous wound. Modern naturalists, however, do 

 not suppose that it possesses the poisonous qualities ascribed to 

 it by the ancients, as well as by many in later times. The sting 

 of this animal, which is so terrible to the apprehension of all 

 fishermen, appears to be only an instrument, which the Author 

 of Nature has, in his universal bounty, given it for its own preser- 

 vation 



